Thank You to daAmon and many others!!!!! Success story.

[tmh]

I've been on this site for a few months. I've had so much help from so many of you. I mentioned daemon specifically because he he answered my very first post (something like "what the heck am I doing) with a 2 page step by step explanation of how to make a DVD from my home movies.

Yesterday was my son's 10th birthday. For the previous few weeks I had been making a video covering his whole life. I reviewed about 30 hours of old analog camcorder footage, 10 hours of DV footage and scanned about 300 photos. To make a long story short, at 6 am on his birthday morning I hit the "encode" button and got ready for the day (yes, no sleep that night, just video work). At 10 am my mpeg was ready, I authored it with TDA and wrote to DVD - done, with 2 hours to spare.

My son's grandparents, Uncles, Aunts, Cousins etc. were all over for his party. After the presents, I gave him my present and we put it in the DVD player to watch. Not to brag, but we all laughed, cried and cheered during the 1 hr video. My son was as happy as I've ever seen him. He actually went in the basement and is filming a "secret" video for me for my birthday! (not much secret because I had to set it all up for him).

Now, truth be told, although I enjoyed watching the video, I also felt the pain of each part that had any quality issue (of course no one else cared or even noticed). I captured in WinDV then edited/created in Pinnacle 9. Why P9? Because I ran out of time and it was handy and quick and, I must say excellent for making a home video. Unfortunately, I was so pressed for time i also encoded with pinnacle which gave OK results. I AM going back and re-encoding with TMPGenc or Procoder for the "final version" to give to grandparents and our copy. I used TDA to author and Nero to burn - all flawless, luckily because I didn't have time to re-do any before the party.

So, thanks to all who helped me learn a bit of this DVD creation mess! I'm no expert now, but you'd never convince my son or my wife that I wasn't the best movie maker in the world! oh, and btw..... I have the three cutest kids anyone had ever seen!

Thanks again to all that have helped me and thanks to all that run and moderate this site.

[Capmaster]

tmh,

Thanks for letting us know that it worked out. It's always nice to read success stories

[daamon]

tmh,

Thanks for letting us know that it worked out. It's always nice to read success stories

Here, here!!! I totally second that - especially as I know my input didn't put you off...

[jimmalenko]

Well, it's great to see someone indicate success. Despite the negative attitudes (rare, I must add) from some regulars when newbies need a step-by-step (or hand-holding, as we like to call it here), all anyone ever wants is a thankyou. I hope you have also learnt the value of the guides, FAQ, and a forum search, to complement your kick-ass homemade DVDs

[tmh]

Jim, yea I am a guide/search/FAQ/Glossary junkie! ALL info is there somewhere if you can find it.

Just a note to the "regulars" who often help. I don't think most newbie's need a hand-holding, just a framework from which to research. By this I mean knowing the steps involved to going from their source material to the final product they are making. I am a fairly smart guy but until Daamon described each step and WHY it is done my brain was going in circles. Remember, if anyone comes here with some knowledge of all-in-ones it like re-learning which can be tougher than learning from a "zero knowledge" start.

Anyways, I'm moving forward into more "tweaking" now that I have the basics down. Unfortunately, the more you know that can be done the more you can't stand to not do the job "completely right". This makes an already long job even longer! Maybe there's something to be said for using all-in-ones and NOT KNOWING there is a better way!!!!!!!!! j/k